After more than a year of construction, Nazareth College is getting ready to take the wraps of its new Jane and Laurence Glazer Music Performance Center.
The $15.5 million facility is located adjacent to the Nazareth College Arts Center, and it includes a 550-seat venue designed specifically for the acoustics of large instrumental ensembles.
Rita Mannelli is the Executive Director for the Arts Center. She says having the new building is important because nearly 20 percent of the Nazareth College student body are in the Department of Music.
“A lot of Nazareth students, both as majors, minors, and non-majors participate in our large ensembles, so it will give them really a new laboratory to practice and perfect their art.”
She says the main space in the Center, the Rose Marie and John Beston Hall, provides state-of-the-art technology in terms of acoustics.
“It’s a very quiet space, a lot was done to make sure that any outside noise was kept outside so all you really hear is the sound of the music. There are curtains and doors that you can open and close, which actually changes the reverberation time and the volume of the space.”
Nazareth College President Daan Braveman says that entrepreneurs and philanthropists Jane and Larry Glazer, "were visionaries for building a better Rochester." Jane Glazer was also a graduate of the college. The Glazers died in a crash involving their private plane in 2014.
Although there will be a grand opening for the new music performance center on September 22nd, Mannelli says there will be a “soft opening” next week when students return to campus so that they can use the facility.
